Nissan clips price of its all-electric Leaf

Making good on a promise to keep it affordable, Nissan said this week that its all-electric Leaf compact car will cost U.S. consumers $25,280 after a $7,500 federal tax credit.

The five-door hatchback, similar in size and shape to the Nissan Versa, runs entirely on electric power and can go up to 100 miles on a single charge. Top speed is about 85 mph, and it has power equivalent to that of a car with a V-6 engine.

It goes on sale in December in five states — Tennessee, Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington — then will be available throughout the United States by the end of next year, said Brian Carolin, senior vice president for sales and marketing for Nissan North America Inc.

The car also can be leased for $349 a month for three years after a $1,999 down payment, Carolin said.

Nissan will include the car’s advanced lithium-ion battery pack in the sales price of the car rather than lease it to consumers separately. There have been persistent rumors that Leaf buyers would have to pay as much as $100 a month extra for a battery lease.

To recharge the battery, consumers will need to have a special 240-volt charger installed at their homes for an additional $2,200. But there is a federal tax credit that will cover half of that, Carolin said. Those who lease the car will be able to lease the home charger, which would push the monthly payment to just more than $400, he said.

A full charge at home will take about eight hours and cost about $3 at today’s electricity rates, Carolin said. But public quick chargers stationed at strategic locations will be able to top off the battery in about 25 minutes

U.S. consumers will be able to make reservations for the Leaf on the Nissan Web site (www.nissanusa.com) beginning April 20 and can place firm orders in August, Carolin said.

The vehicle also goes on sale in Japan in December, but the price there is $40,000.

Although the car initially will be imported from a plant in Japan, Nissan will begin assembling them at its plant near Nashville, Tenn., in late 2012. The company also will build a $1 billion plant next to the Tennessee facility to manufacture the battery packs.

Until the Tennessee plant goes into production with the batteries and the car, Nissan will be limited to just 50,000 Leafs a year worldwide from the Japanese plant, Carolin said.

That will make the Leaf scarce in the U.S. market initially, but Nissan hopes to minimize the possibility of dealers charging a premium over the list price for buyers eager to get one of the cars, he said.

“We will have complete transparency on our Web site about the vehicle’s price, and while we can’t legally control what our retailers charge, we will discourage” dealers from adding markups, he said.

Demand might be lighter in Japan than in the United States, though, because the higher price there will put the car out of reach for many consumers.

The Leaf’s U.S. price was “surprisingly lower than expected,” said George Peterson, president of the Santa Ana, Calif.-based marketing and consulting firm AutoPacific.

“For a pure electric, it’s definitely priced at a value point,” he said. “In California, it will cost even less because there is a $5,000 tax credit for zero-emissions vehicles. That will bring it down to about $20,000.

“In the beginning, there will be a lot of takers,” Peterson said. “The early-adopter tree-huggers will scramble for it. But our research shows that the number of people clamoring for pure-electric vehicles is very low. Range anxiety is a serious problem.”

Nissan has said the Tennessee plant will have an annual capacity of 150,000 Leafs, with the volume being limited by the number of batteries that the adjacent facility can turn out. But finding enough takers for that many Leafs may be a problem, Peterson said.

The Leaf’s end price — which is about the same as the average transaction price for the gasoline-electric Toyota Prius hybrid — will put some pressure on General Motors Co. to keep the tab reasonable for its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid electric car, which also goes on sale in December, Peterson said.

But GM spokesman Klaus-Peter Martin said the Volt and the Leaf are very different because the Volt has an onboard gasoline engine that kicks in to drive a generator to keep the electric motor going after the battery gets low.

The Leaf, though, has to be plugged into an external power outlet when its battery runs down.

GM has not announced pricing for the Volt, but Martin said it’s expected to be around $40,000, which would make it about $32,500 after the federal tax rebate is applied. He also noted that the Volt is slightly larger than the Leaf.

Another difference is that the Volt can be recharged from any standard 110-volt household power outlet in about nine hours. The Leaf requires a special 240-volt outlet. Consumers could opt for a 240-volt charging outlet for the Volt, which would drop recharging time to about three hours, but that’s not required, Martin said.

Nissan also is working with partners to have public fast-charging stations built, including many along interstate highway corridors. Those initially will be concentrated in the five states where the car will be introduced in December, but eventually they will be nationwide. They will be compatible with all electric vehicles coming to market in the future, including the Volt.

The Leaf’s U.S. base price is $32,780, before the tax rebate, for the entry-level SV model, Nissan said. It will come with a navigation system, mobile Internet connection, electronic stability control, air conditioning, power windows and door locks, antilock brakes, multiple air bags and other amenities.

For an additional $940, the uplevel SL model will include a rearview monitor, solar-panel spoiler, fog lights and automatic headlights.

Production of the Leaf will begin in September at the company’s Oppama plant, south of Tokyo. The Tennessee plant and another one in Sunderland, England, are expected to begin producing the car by early 2013.

Nissan also will build the lithium-ion batteries at the British factory, as well as at plants in France, Portugal and Japan.